William Havelock was the eldest son of William Havelock of
Ingress Park,
Kent, and brother of
Sir Henry Havelock and of Colonel Charles Havelock of the
16th Lancers. He was born on 23 January 1793 and was educated at
Charterhouse School and under a private tutor. On 12 July 1810 he was appointed ensign
43rd Light Infantry, in which he became lieutenant in 1812. In the
Peninsular War, he carried one of the colours of the 43rd at the passage of the
Coa River in 1810, and was present in all the subsequent actions in which the
Light Division was engaged, spending time as aide-de-camp to Major-General
Charles, Baron Alten, commanding the division. At the
combat of Vera in October 1813, a Spanish force was held in check by an
abattis defended by two French regiments. Havelock, who had been sent to ascertain their progress, called on the Spanish to follow him, and went headlong among the enemy. The Spanish broke through the French, as their centre was under the fire of
James Kempt's skirmishers. Havelock was Alten's aide-de-camp at the
battle of Waterloo and at the occupation of Paris. In 1818, he obtained a company in the
32nd Foot, and served with the corps in
Corfu. Later he exchanged to the
4th Light Dragoons, with which he went to India. He was some time aide-de-camp to
Sir Charles Colville when commander-in-chief at
Bombay, and was military secretary to
John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone while
Governor of Madras. He became major 4th Light Dragoons in 1830, and exchanging into the 14th Light Dragoons, became lieutenant-colonel of that regiment in 1841. He commanded it in the field under
Sir Charles Napier, and with the Bombay troops sent to reinforce
Lord Gough's army during the
Second Anglo-Sikh War. He fell mortally wounded at the head of his regiment in a charge on the Sikhs at the
battle of Ramnagar, on the banks of the
River Chenab, on 22 November 1848. Heavily wounded, after eleven of his troopers had been killed beside him, he was left for dead on the field. In 1824 Havelock married Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of Acton Chaplin of
Aylesbury, by whom he had 13 children including the colonial governor Sir
Arthur Havelock. ==References==